Gaming PC parts list - £500 Budget

[GoodNewsEveryone]

Hi all,

I'm looking to build a decent gaming pc in the sub-£500 mark.
I'm pretty new to all of this, but i've done some research, and come up with this list.

Motherboard:
P8Z77-V LX (£85)

CPU:
Intel i5 3550 (£160)

RAM:
(1x4gb) Corsair Vengeance @ 1600Mhz (£20)

Graphics card:
Sapphire 7770 (£100)

Power Supply:
Cooler master elite 500w (£35)

Hard Drive:
Western Digital 500gb (£40)

So what do you forum geniuses think about it?
Have I made any rookie mistakes?

 

[g-unit1111]

What's the primary use for this build? If it's gaming - that 7770 won't get you very far, and Cooler Master has a horrendous reputation when it comes to power supplies.

 

[metal orient]

Not too bad, you've missed 3 things: a case, a dvd drive (which you may not need but most likely will) and a copy of windows (unless you have one already).

Everything is compatible the balance is the problem though as your CPU is too powerful for your GPU.

As an example from aria.co.uk (# numbers are quick codes for aria's site)

ARIANET StealthX Black Midi Tower Gaming Case #47034
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile Blue 8GB (2x4GB) #45510
GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V GEN3 Intel H61 (REV B3) Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard #48248
550W OCZ ZS Series 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply #45457
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail #43840
XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card #50787
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW with DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black #46140
1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive #48501

Final Price: £508.97

Now i have assumed you have a copy of windows for this otherwise we'll have to clip £70 off somewhere, probably the graphics card.

 

[GoodNewsEveryone]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, the primary use would be for gaming, just looking for a playable frame rate really. I thought the benchmarks were ok for a budget build?

Cheers for the heads up about the power supply, (I really have no clue about the companies the make them ) Could you recommend a better one?

Thanks again

 

[GoodNewsEveryone]

Thanks for the reply, metal! Sorry, I forgot to include those in the OP. i have a copy of windows 7, a dvd drive, and was planning on buying the antec three hundred case?

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, the primary use would be for gaming, just looking for a playable frame rate really. I thought the benchmarks were ok for a budget build?

Cheers for the heads up about the power supply, (I really have no clue about the companies the make them ) Could you recommend a better one?

Thanks again

Yeah what PSU you pick is *VERY* important - choosing the wrong one has the potential to quite literally blow up in your face. :lol:

For that budget I'd recommend something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus P8H77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£83.99 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£42.00 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£47.65 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card (£118.42 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case (£38.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 600W ATX12V Power Supply (£53.52 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On DS-8A8SH DVD/CD Writer (£21.59 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £495.49
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-13 17:47 BST+0100)

 

[GoodNewsEveryone]

Thanks very much for putting together that list, g-man!
Only thought was, would that dual core be a limiting factor for gaming?

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks very much for putting together that list, g-man!
Only thought was, would that dual core be a limiting factor for gaming?

Not really - games are more about the GPU than the CPU, pretty much any recent game (Skyrim, Arkham City, and so on) will require a better GPU to get the most frame rates out of it.

 

[GoodNewsEveryone]

Oh, okay. Well, thanks very much!